Boat captain convicted of drug possession loses appeal
The Court of Appeal has unanimously rejected a proposed appeal by a boat captain against his convictions and sentences for drug possession with intent to supply.
Jose Cabrera was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment and fined $20,000 to avoid spending an additional six months in custody.
The sentences took effect from the date of his remand in September 2021.
On August 28, 2021, police boarded a sailboat skippered by Cabrera at a marina in Long Island to search for illegal drugs.
The police did not find any contraband during the initial search.
Police took Cabrera, his crew member, and the boat to Exuma to carry out a more comprehensive search.
During the second search, police officers found a crocus bag containing 61 pounds of cocaine inside a wooden structure in the engine room where the batteries for the boat’s vessel were stored.
Cabrera was convicted following a trial before Magistrate Samuel McKinney, who rejected his testimony that he had no knowledge of the drugs.
Cabrera’s crew member was acquitted.
After firing a public defender and a privately retained lawyer, Cabrera represented himself at the appeal.
He argued that his conviction was unsafe because he was locked up at the police station when Sergeant Dorsett found the drugs. They found no merit in this argument as the magistrate accepted the officer’s evidence.
The court further noted that Cabrera’s complaint was undermined by his admission in the record of the interview that he was outside the boat when they did the inspection.
Cabrera also failed to convince the court to quash the fine, which he said he was unable to pay.
The appellate judges found that the imposition of a fine or an additional six months was not unduly harsh as he would effectively serve a two-year sentence for possession of dangerous drugs with intent to supply.
Source- The Nassau Guardian
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg agree to hold cage fight
Two of the world's most high-profile technology billionaires - Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg - have agreed to fight each other in a cage match.
Mr. Musk posted a message on his social media platform Twitter that he was "up for a cage fight" with Mr Zuckerberg.
Mr. Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, then posted a screenshot of Mr. Musk's tweet with the caption "send me location".
"The story speaks for itself," a Meta spokesperson told the BBC.
Mr. Musk then replied to Mr. Zuckerberg's response with: "Vegas Octagon."
The Octagon is the competition mat and fenced-in area used for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bouts. The UFC is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mr. Musk, who turns 52 later this month, also tweeted: "I have this great move that I call "The Walrus", where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing."
He also tweeted: "I almost never work out, except for picking up my kids & throwing them in the air."
Meanwhile, 39-year-old Mr. Zuckerberg has already been training in mixed martial arts (MMA) and has recently won jiu-jitsu tournaments.
Twitter did not provide a statement when contacted by the BBC for comment.
The exchanges have gone viral with social media users debating who would win the bout, while others have posted memes including mocked-up posters advertising the fight.
Earlier this month, Meta showed staff plans for a text-based social network designed to compete with Twitter, sources have told the BBC.
It could allow users to follow accounts they already follow on Instagram, Meta's image-sharing app.
It could potentially allow the company to bring over followers from decentralized platforms such as Mastodon.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed to the BBC that the platform was in development.
The text-based network - which has a working title of P92 - could turn out to be a greater rival to Elon Musk's Twitter than either BlueSky or Mastodon.
Source- BBC
Gundogan out Kovacic in - what next for Man City?
Manchester City's imminent signing of Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic and Ilkay Gundogan's departure are the first changes to the squad which landed last season's Treble - but are unlikely to be the last.
The 29-year-old Croatia international - who will arrive for an initial fee of £25m, potentially rising to £30m - looked like he would boost City's options in the heart of midfield.
But just hours later, the news came out that German midfielder Gundogan would be joining Barcelona this summer on a free transfer - making the reasons for Kovacic's signing a lot clearer.
Kovacic played 69 passes per 90 minutes last season - the fifth-highest total in the Premier League among central midfielders who played regularly.
He arrives with four Champions League successes to his name, three with Real Madrid, and provides the wealth of experience Pep Guardiola will be losing with Gundogan's departure.
Like Gundogan, he is able to play further forward despite preferring a more defensive role, although he does trail the German with just seven appearances per goal contribution to the former's three.
Kovacic has scored just 24 goals in 491 club appearances, compared to Gundogan's 110 in 557 career appearances.
The 32-year-old German midfielder's influence was crucial in the closing weeks of City's season with six goals in his final seven games - including a double in the 2-1 FA Cup final win over Manchester United.
It's no wonder Guardiola did not want to lose his captain but, after missing out on Jude Bellingham to Real Madrid, is Kovacic his replacement?
BBC Sport's Simon Stone, said: "It explains why City is close to signing Kovacic from Chelsea and makes you wonder if Guardiola will stop there.
"After all, there is the annual uncertainty around Bernardo Silva, while Riyad Mahrez lost his starting spot as the season came to an end and is sure to be the subject of interest.
"Further back, Aymeric Laporte won't want to risk his place in Spain's Euro 2024 squad by being on the fringes at City.
"Guardiola proved last summer he was not averse to selling what were felt to be key men to rivals when he allowed Oleskandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus to join Arsenal.
"Over the years, City has been very good at knowing when to let players go. Gundogan may not be the last through the exit door before the summer is out."
So what changes are possible this summer?
Source- BBC
Jennifer Lawrence says 'It really is hard to make a comedy where you're not offending people'
In No Hard Feelings, she plays Maddie, a broke Uber driver who responds to an advert from two parents looking for a woman to date - and sleep with - their introverted teenage son.
While it's rated a 15 in the UK, the film is an R in the US - which means anyone under the age of 17 would need to be accompanied by an adult to see it in the cinema - and is being billed as the return of R rated comedies to theatres.
Lawrence told Sky News she thinks the world needs comedy at the moment - and if audiences find some of the content offensive, then maybe that's a good thing.
"I think it's time for just a good old-fashioned laugh," she said. "And it really is hard to make a comedy where you're not offending people. Everybody in some sense will be offended by this film - you're welcome."
Lawrence's co-star Andrew Barth Feldman - who plays Percy, the teenager Maddie is being paid to seduce - agrees.
"We need to be able to engage with being offended," he said. "There was and is like a big overcorrect because we realized there were so many things that we were joking about that we shouldn't be... and I think this movie does a really good job of continuing to push limits while still engaging with the conversation that the things that these people are doing are wrong, and not a good idea."
"Something we learned from the old-time comedies is mean comedy is not really funny," Lawrence added. "You know, making somebody feel bad about themselves - other than me making fun of me. But the way that we did it is fine, we figured it out."
Lawrence had been looking for the chance to explore her funny side on screen for a while. "I was definitely always open to a comedy," she said. "I wouldn't say I was like: 'I really want my character to try to have sex with a young person', but I just read it and it was the funniest thing I'd ever read."
No Hard Feelings was actually inspired by a real advert on the US listings site Craigslist, which Lawrence and writer/director Gene Stupnitsky found themselves discussing over dinner one night.
"He showed me the Craigslist ad and we were just laughing about it," she said. "Our whole dinner was just talking about the kind of people who would write the ad - and so that's kind of in my mind where I thought he would go with the movie."
But rather than the parents, the film focuses on Maddie and Percy - the teenage son of an overprotective mother and father, who seemingly has no interest in dating.
While Percy's an extreme case, Barth Feldman found plenty to relate to in the character.
"My generation - and we see this so much with Percy - we're the first generation that was born with iPhones in our hands," he said. "And so there is just a sense of compulsion and fear and comparison that is so constant with us.
"[Percy] is stuck in this bubble - the world outside is all on his phone and his parents want to bubble-wrap him and he hates it, but it's safe for him; but he needs to break out, he needs to learn that he can make his own decisions and truthfully, put the phone down for a little bit."
No Hard Feelings isn't the only film Lawrence has been promoting lately, having also appeared at the Cannes film festival in May for the documentary Bread And Roses, which she co-produced.
The film looks at the women living under Taliban rule in Afghanistan and is something of a passion project for Lawrence.
"You watch it on the news and you know that it's just going to eventually fade out of the news and I didn't want these women's lives to just be a quick story that everybody forgets about," she said. "So I spoke to my producing partner about how to get cameras in a Taliban-run Afghanistan, and we found Sahra Mani, who is an Afghan filmmaker, and we told her this is what we want to do.
"Obviously it was extremely dangerous for her and for the three women that participated... and thanks to Sahra and these amazing women's courage, we have this footage that hopefully will explain and put more light on women's suffrage in Afghanistan, which is just unbelievable."
Source- Sky News
Amazon accused of tricking Prime customers
The US has accused Amazon of tricking customers into signing up for automatically renewing Prime subscriptions and making it difficult to cancel.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the country's consumer rights watchdog, made the claims in a lawsuit.
It cited allegedly "manipulative" website designs.
Amazon rejected the charges, calling them "false on the facts and the law".
More than 200 million people subscribe to Prime globally. The service, which offers shipping perks, access to streaming movies, and more, costs $139 a year or $14.99 monthly in the US and £95 per year in the UK.
The FTC said Amazon used website designs that pushed customers into agreeing to enroll in Prime and have the subscription automatically renewed as they were making purchases.
The company attempted to make it difficult for users to opt out of auto-enrolment because "those changes would also negatively affect Amazon's bottom line", the agency alleged in the complaint, filed in federal court in Seattle.
It also said Amazon put customers seeking to cancel through a cumbersome "four-page, six-click, fifteen option" process, which the FTC said was known internally as "Iliad" in a nod to the Greek epic about the "long, arduous Trojan War".
Though Amazon altered the cancellation process shortly before the lawsuit was filed, the FTC said the company's tactics broke laws aimed at protecting shoppers.
"Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money," FTC Chair Lina Khan said.
The FTC is seeking a court order to force Amazon to change its practices, as well as financial penalties of an unspecified amount.
Amazon said it had been in the middle of discussing the issues with the agency when the lawsuit was filed without notice.
"The truth is that customers love Prime, and by design, we make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up for or cancel their Prime membership," the company said.
The FTC has repeatedly warned online firms against using "dark patterns" to manipulate shoppers.
It had been investigating Amazon's Prime program since 2021.
It said the company had attempted to delay the probe on multiple occasions, including by refusing to deliver documents in a timely manner.
Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf, a senior analyst at Insider Intelligence analyst said the FTC was "making an example of Amazon".
"It's quite common for companies to make it more difficult to cancel an account than it is to create one," she said.
Source- BBC
Tesla wins as Texas requires state-backed charging stations to include its plug
Tesla Inc. scored a series of victories for its charging technology on Tuesday, capped by Texas saying it would require EV charging companies to include both Tesla's standard as well as the nationally recognized CCS if they want to be part of a state program to electrify highways using federal dollars.
Reuters was the first to report both that electric pickup truck maker Rivian was backing Tesla and that charger maker BTC Power would support the standard. Those announcements follow decisions by General Motors and Ford Motor Co. to add Tesla charging technology, shunning efforts by the Biden administration to make the Combined Charging System (CCS) the dominant charging standard in the United States.
Texas - home to Tesla's headquarters and a new car factory complex - is the first state that will mandate Tesla's charging technology, giving a boost to CEO Elon Musk's hope of making it the national charging standard.
"The decision by Ford, GM, and now Rivian to adopt NACS changed requirements for Phase 1" of the rollout, the Texas Department of Transportation said in an email to Reuters on Tuesday, adding that it would require direct current fast chargers to have one CCS and one North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector.
Texas's decision will put a ton of pressure on other states to adopt Tesla's NACS, said Lew Cox, director of business development at MD7, which helps companies deploy chargers.
"It’ll effectively make a NACS the new charging standard," Cox said.
The U.S. Department of Transportation earlier this year said that charging companies must provide the CCS to be eligible for up to $7.5 billion in federal funding to build new, high-speed chargers on 7,500 miles (12,070 km) of the nation's busiest highways.
The Federal Highway Administration on Tuesday acknowledged the industry was rapidly evolving. The growth of the nation's EV industry is a sign that public investments are paying dividends, but the policy is always under review, said a Federal Highway Administration spokesperson.
"Our technical experts are having active conversations with automakers, charger manufacturers, and standards-setting bodies to ensure federal investment continues to support a reliable, convenient, and user-friendly charging experience for all drivers," the spokesperson said.
The federal dollars are flowing through the states, which are empowered to tailor their own guidelines as long as they meet minimum federal standards. States are expected to award the first round of funding through the remainder of the year.
Since the Ford and GM announcements, top U.S. charging companies like ChargePoint and EVgo said they would look to add the same standard to their U.S. chargers.
Other states like California, Iowa, and Michigan are reviewing the shifting charging market. And at least one other state is considering giving applicants bonus points on applications if they include the Tesla charging ports.
Tesla shares rose 1.2 percent in extended trade, after closing up 5.3 percent on Tuesday.
Tesla said in the U.S. there are approximately 2,000 Supercharger locations and more than 21,000 Supercharger stalls, which represents approximately 60 percent of the fast-charging plugs operational in the country.
Source- Automotive News
TURKS AND CAICOS WEATHER FORECAST FOR THURSDAY AND FRIDAY
FORECAST FOR THURSDAY
WEATHER: CLOUDY WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS AND WIDELY SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS IN THE NORTHWEST BAHAMAS AND PARTLY SUNNY AND BREEZY WITH ISOLATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS IN THE CENTRAL BAHAMAS AND TURKS AND CAICOS.
WINDS: SOUTHEAST TO SOUTH AT 10 TO 15 KNOTS IN THE NORTHWEST BECOMING EAST TO SOUTHEAST AT 15 TO 20 KNOTS IN THE CENTRAL BAHAMAS AND TURKS AND CAICOS.
SEAS:2 TO 4 FEET IN THE NORTHWEST AND 4 TO 6 FEET IN THE CENTRAL BAHAMAS AND TURKS AND CAICOS.
FORECAST FOR FRIDAY
WEATHER: VARIABLY CLOUDY, HOT, AND BREEZY IN THE NORTHWEST AND WINDY IN THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ISLANDS, WITH WIDELY SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS. SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT FOR THE CENTRAL BAHAMAS AND TURKS AND CAICOS.
WINDS: SOUTHEAST AT 10 TO 15 KNOTS IN THE NORTHWEST BECOMING EAST TO SOUTHEAST AT 20 TO 25 KNOTS IN THE CENTRAL BAHAMAS AND TURKS AND CAICOS.
SEAS: 2 TO 4 FEET IN THE NORTHWEST AND 5 TO 7 FEET IN THE CENTRAL BAHAMAS AND TURKS AND CAICOS.
Building Integrity among Senior Leaders 2023
Captain Francis Glinton of the Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment reflects on his experience while attending a course titled “Building Integrity among Senior leaders “ held at the United Kingdom Defence Academy, Leadership Center, Bekkent House:
“This Training Course was very informative and insightful. Indeed, I wish to extend profound thanks the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom for such a privilege, being invited to the Defence Leadership Center in BEKKENT HOUSE.
Since registering for the Building Integrity among Senior Leaders Course, and engaging with the content around the topics discussed on policing, military risks, interface and leadership in addressing corruption, it has equipped me with the relevant information and resources to be effective in excuting my duties.
Additionally, it was beneficial to receive informal training on Public Finance Management, Fraud, Risks and Audit, Corruption Risks in Procurement, including Corruption Risks in Security Complex Environments and Media Strategic Communications.
I envision that these key components will prove resourceful for the Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment as we continue building platforms in our infancy stage especially throughout the leadership core.
Finally, I must continue to express my gratitude for the opportunity to attend this Course, not only as I a representative of the TCI Regiment, but also as an ambassador for the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The shared knowledge and guidance I have received from Senior Law Enforcement Leaders of 18 different countries will surely remain with me throughout the years.”
Suspected murder along Millennium Highway
Detectives from the Serious Crime Unit of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force are currently at the scene of a suspected murder along the Millennium Highway.
Though details remain limited at this time, preliminary information received stated a call was placed to the Police Control Room today (June 19th) at around 6:58 a.m. indicating that the lifeless body of a male was laying on the roadside.
RTCIPF officers arrived at the location and found the bleeding body with what appeared to be a gunshot wound.
The victim’s identity is yet to be determined, and investigations are ongoing.
This release will be updated as more information becomes available.
UPDATED STATEMENT ON MURDER
Detectives from the Serious Crime Unit of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force are currently investigating a murder following the discovery of a body off the shoulder of the road on Millennium Highway, Providenciales, this morning (June 19th).
The unidentified male is 5’ 08” ft tall, slim built, about 150 - 160 pounds, and appears to be between the ages of 18 – 25. The body was clad only in black shorts with white stripes on one side.
The male victim was barefooted and had distinctive scars on his upper chest and a short haircut.
The RTCIPF is seeking the assistance of the public in positively identifying the male victim.
Based on preliminary information a call was placed to the Police Control Room today at around 6:58 a.m. indicating that the lifeless body of a male was laying on the roadside.
RTCIPF officers arrived at the location and found the bleeding body with what appeared to be a wound to the head.
An autopsy is expected to be performed today to determine the cause of death.